Khlong khon: Residents of Khlong Khon are urging the government to urgently control the influx of foreign cockles into the domestic market, causing prices to plummet and severely impacting farmers who are left with unsold stock.
According to Thai News Agency, local cockle farmers and traders accompanied a Member of Parliament from the People's Party in Samut Songkhram to Khlong Khon Subdistrict, Mueang Samut Songkhram District, to investigate the severe hardship they are facing. The import of large, low-cost cockles from neighboring countries is flooding the domestic market, impacting prices and the livelihoods of farmers. Currently, cockles are imported by air and land from neighboring countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. These are naturally grown cockles, larger than farm-raised Thai cockles, with lower labor, harvesting, and transportation costs, priced at only 40-90 baht per kilogram. In contrast, Thai cockles have a cost of 120 baht per kilogram for seedlings (100 cockles/kilogram). This influx of cockles is causing farmers to struggle to sell their produce. They are forced to wait for import schedules, which are hampered by issues such as high water levels preventing harvesting and limited space on airplan es. As a result, they can only sell Thai cockles two days a week, and the long waiting period causes farm-raised cockles to die, leading to significant losses. They are therefore appealing to the relevant authority to implement measures to stop the import of large cockles to help the farmers.
A representative from the People's Party stated that while trade agreements, such as those of the World Trade Organization, cannot completely ban imports, the government can implement strict countermeasures to control the influx and prevent it from disrupting domestic pricing mechanisms. They will now present the matter to the Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and use the Agricultural Committee to summon relevant agencies to explain and resolve the issue.